Florida Sports Hall of Fame induction in Pensacola to have special night | Vilona

Michelle Snow reacts after being announced as 2018 inductee you Florida Sports Hall of Fame
BRIAN ACHATZ, bachatz@pnj.com

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An introductory meeting in 2017 led the Florida Sports Hall of Fame to bring its induction ceremony to Pensacola for the first time. Pensacola mayor Ashton Hayword (front left) was joined by Barry Smith, FSHOF president, along with Wayne Hogan, the executive director and Gordon Sprague, now on the board of directors, during reception at the Fish House.(Photo11: Bill Vilona/bvilona@pnj.com)Buy Photo

What started as a hopeful idea has become a significant point in the 57-year history of the Florida Sports Hall of Fame.

Pensacola's first-time role as host for the 2018 enshrinement on Nov. 7 at the National Naval Aviation Museum on Pensacola Naval Air Station has exceeded expectations, both with interest and scope.

""We are very close to selling out and I'm not sure when that has happened before, so far in advance," said Gordon Sprague, the event's point man and local member of the FSHOF Board of Directors. "I will predict we will sell out, all 45 tables. So it has been very special to see this coming together for a number of reasons.":

Gordon Sprague, vice president of the Florida Sports Hall of Fame, left, and Keith Hoskins, western district general manager for Gulf Power, share a laugh during a press conference to announce a partnership between the Florida Sports Hall of Fame and Andrews Institue at the Andrews Performance & Research Pavilion in Gulf Breeze on Tuesday, May 15, 2018. This year's Hall of Fame induction ceremony, featuring local sports icons Justin Gatlin, Roy Jones, Jr., Michelle Snow, and others, will be held on November 7 at the National Naval Aviation Museum on NAS Pensacola.(Photo11: Jody Link/online@pnj.com)

Four of Pensacola's greatest athletes — Justin Gatlin, Roy Jones Jr., Jerry Pate and Michelle Snow — will be inducted that night as athletes who grew up in Pensacola and went on to world-renown fame.

The four will be joined in the induction class by former Major League Baseball star Gary Sheffield from Tampa; Mick Hubert, the Florida Gators renown broadcaster; and the posthumous induction of Orlando's Pete Pihos, who is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

In addition, long-time, former Florida State defensive coordinator Mickey Andrews, who recruited the Pensacola area while coaching, will receive a special achievement award that night.

"This year with the people we have going in, it's a stellar event," said Sprague, a retired Gulf Breeze businessman, whose multi-faceted role in the Pensacola sports scene includes being chairman of the UWF Football Founders — the group that got the Argos' nationally-ranked football team started in 2016.

"Any time you can bring a major event to the city to focus on the community's success, I think that is very important." Sprague said. "The candidates being enshrined are the ones who make it work. They are the drawing card."

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Tim Tebow, who grew up in the Jacksonville area and played at Neace High, was part of the 2017 Florida Sports Hall of Fame class a year ago at the Sawgrass Marriott on Ponte Vedra Beach.(Photo11: Bill Vilona/bvilona@pnj.com)

Sprague said only a handful of the 10-seat tables, which have starting price of $1,500, are left to be sold.

Upon his appointment in April, 2017 as the first Pensacola area representative on the organization's board of directors, Sprague pushed for a local enshrinement event.

"They've have never had it anywhere in this region and we felt with the kind of athletes who are from Pensacola, this was a great time to do it," he said.

Last year's Florida Sports Hall of Fame induction event was held at the Sawgrass Marriott on Ponte Vedra Beach, near Jacksonville. That class included Tim Tebow and Chipper Jones as the headliners with local ties.

Included in the 2017 honorees were former PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem, former FSU and NFL running back Warrick Dunn and the posthumous induction of former LPGA star Colleen Walker, who grew up in Jacksonville and won nine LPGA tournaments.

Since Barry Smith took over as FSHOF president, he's sought to take the organization into a higher level. Smith is a former FSU and NFL receiver. He hired Wayne Hogan, a long-time college athletics administrator, including more than a decade at FSU as the FSHOF director.

Past induction ceremonies were in Tampa and Fort Lauderdale before last year's event. The 2019 ceremony will be in Orlando.

The atrium of the National Naval Aviation Museum, not far from the Blue Angels hangar, is a unique venue. The FSHOF has never held its induction in any comparable location.

Former Blue Angels pilot Keith Hoskins, who later became base commander at Pensacola NAS and now works as a Gulf Power executive, has joined with Sprague on the FSHOF board of directors.

"Keith has been a tremendous help," Sprague said. "Everyone at NAS and the Museum have been great. They are all over it. They have 900,000 people go through (the museum) every year. They know how to do events. They are just pleased to have us there.

"I think that makes it special for the enshrinement inductees. It is special for the military and the museum to have it in that facility."

Sprague also led the FSHOF to have a fishing tournament last month in Destin at A.J.'s Harbor. It will now be an annual event.

"Because of the blue bloods that we have in this community and in the sports arena, it's nice they can be recognized in or near their home," Sprague said.